Prince Harry and Meghan only told King Charles about move 4 days ago
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle only told King Charles about their plans to move back to Britain four days before it was announced, according to reports. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will return to the UK later this month, making their home in a non-royal residence outside of London, and have already enrolled Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet in British schools.
It is understood there will be no change to Harry and Meghan's role and status as private individuals and non-working members of the Royal Family.
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The monarch was only told on Sunday that his son and daughter-in-law were returning to Britain with Prince Archie, 7, and Princess Lilibet, 5, despite reuniting with them at Highgrove House in July, The Sun reports. Charles is nonetheless understood to welcome the opportunity to see more of the family in a private and personal capacity.
Harry and Meghan will retain their homes in Montecito, California, and Portugal, while the duchess will continue to run her lifestyle brand As Ever from their new base.
It comes more than six years after Buckingham Palace announced that the couple would set up their own household in March 2019, breaking from the joint operation they had with Prince William and Princess Kate, amid media reports of rifts between the so-called "fab four".
In January 2020, the duke and duchess announced they intended to step back as "senior" members of the Royal Family, become financially independent, still support Queen Elizabeth II, but split their time between the UK and North America.
The late Queen ruled at the Sandringham Summit, which was convened to resolve the crisis, that the couple could not have a "half in, half out" role.
By March 2020, Harry and Meghan had set up a permanent home in California, officially stepped down as senior royals and stopped using their HRH titles.
The shock announcement of their return comes less than two months after Harry was trying to find a way to safely bring his wife and children to Britain to mark the one-year countdown to the Invictus Games in Birmingham.
At the end of June, he was still waiting for a review by the Risk Management Board (RMB), part of the process by which the Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures (RAVEC) rules on his security requirements.
Meghan, Archie and Lilibet were able to join Harry at the end of a week-long series of events promoting the games, when the family met Charles for the first time in four years at Highgrove, but are not thought to have raised the prospect of a return to the Uk at the time.